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Energy Performance Inspection of Air Conditioning Systems

The government has introduced new legislation in response to the European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), which requires that all air conditioning systems of greater than 12 kW cooling capacity be inspected by an accredited Energy Assessor. This includes the combined output of one or more individual air conditioning units in a building if they are controlled by the same person.

Air conditioning systems over 250 kW cooling capacity should have been inspected by 4 January 2009.

Air conditioning systems between 12 kW and 250 kW capacity should have been inspected by 4 January 2011. This applies to all systems installed before 1 January 2008.

Systems installed after 1 January 2008 should be inspected within 5 years of the date of installation and then every five years after that

It is the responsibility of whoever controls the operation of the air conditioning system to ensure that the inspections are carried out, i.e. the landlord, the building owner.

The inspection must be carried out by an accredited Energy Assessor. The inspection will examine the refrigerant and air movement equipment that is part of air conditioning systems, as well as its controls. Paperwork that indicates the extent to which the systems have been maintained will also be reviewed. Following the inspection, a report will be completed. It will include information about the efficiency of the air conditioning system, along with advice on how the effectiveness of the system might be improved. The report must be kept by the relevant person for the building and passed on when that person changes.

Any relevant person taking over control of an air conditioning system who does not receive the Inspection Report has three months to get the system inspected from the day on which he was appointed.

Energy inspections will highlight improvements to the operation of your existing systems or opportunities to replace older, less efficient units with new and much more energy efficient systems, thus reducing energy costs

The Regulations are enforced by the local Trading Standards offices who may issue Penalty Charge Notices for breach of the regulations. The penalty charge for residential properties is £300 for every day of non compliance and for commercial properties it is geared to 12.5% of the rateable value. For further information visit www.communities.gov.uk.

RSSAC Limited, has an accredited Energy Assessor qualified to carry out air conditioning inspections and can ensure your compliance with the regulation, including lodgement of the assessment on the data base for Trading Standards.